Trip Ends With Thud

Los Angeles — If you look at this road trip, coach Jacques Martin said, the Panthers outplayed their opponents in all three games.

At this point, that doesn't matter much.

"It's nice to have some good flurries," defenseman Sean Hill said. "But the bottom line is: If we don't get anything out of it, what good is it?"

The Panthers flew home Saturday after losing 3-1 to the Kings at the Staples Center. They also fell to San Jose and Dallas on this trip.

They lost their club-high 12th consecutive road game, and did so to a team that had lost six of its past eight.

Special teams again victimized the Panthers.

The Kings scored their first goal with three seconds left on a 5-on-3. Another came on a short-handed breakaway; their third as defenseman Alexei Semenov exited the penalty box.

The Panthers' only response was Joe Nieuwendyk's goal with 11:12 left, a rebound shot that glanced off the right post and bounced in off goalie Mathieu Garon's skate.

"That L.A. team is nothing fancy -- they just work hard," Nieuwendyk said. "That's a team we should beat and we don't. It just shows you where we are. We have so far to go it's not even funny.

"Until you get 20 guys thinking the same thing ... I'm sure everybody wants to win, but there's a preparation and a price that goes with that. And we don't make that commitment night in and night out. It's frustrating. There were some games we could have had on this road trip."

"We have to be able to put the puck away when we get a lot of chances like we have in a few games out here," Hill said. "And we have to play tighter defensively."

Pavol Demitra tallied the first two goals, and Michael Cammalleri slammed in a one-timer from one knee after Derek Armstrong's pass from down low near the left boards.

Demitra scored his first with 1:35 left in the opening period, firing a shot from along the goal line that hit defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's skate and squirted through Roberto Luongo's pads.

Then at 14:58 of the second period, nearly midway through a Panthers power play, Craig Conroy controlled a loose puck and sent it to Demitra at center ice with a clear path to Luongo. Demitra cruised in, sent Luongo diving the wrong way with a stick deke and scored.

"We compete in these games -- same thing here today," Nieuwendyk said. "But we find ways to lose, and that's a sign of not a very good hockey club right now. We have to be determined to turn it around, but until we all look at ourselves in the mirror and make the commitment, it's not going to happen. We're going to see this story again and again.

"There may have to be people that move, there may have to be people that come in. Until you develop some sort of team identity, which we don't seem to have, you're going to spin your tires."